Residents evacuated after driver hits gas main

A Pasadena neighborhood was partially evacuated last night after a driver lost control, slammed though several fences and then hit a gas meter.

Authorities say around 10:30pm, the driver was headed south on South Richey near West Thomas when he crashed through a fence at the Richey Elementary school yard, missing the school buildings but hitting a gas meter in the alley.

He continued traveling into the yard of a house in that residential neighborhood. The driver stopped 20 feet short of the house, but the damage was already done. Neighbors were put on alert about the leaking gas.

They say the man was on the street, disoriented, saying he was trying to head home after dropping his daughter off.

"He took his daughter over to get her car or something. She went home," said neighbor Sherry Buchanan. "They said, 'Where are you going?' He said, 'Home,' but he didn't know where he was, that he was on bath salts or something."

The driver was taken to the hospital to be checked out. At this point, there's no word on what charges he may face.

The gas company came out to repair the leak. Everyone was allowed back into their homes. School will go on as planned today at Richey Elementary.